While Prentice and his cabinet are open to the idea of taking a pay cut to save the province some money, Alberta’s unions aren’t too keen on the idea themselves.
On Thursday, Premier Jim Prentice and the members of his cabinet have agreed to take a five percent reduction in their wages to help the province in these ‘challenging times’.
Next week, all serving MLAs will be asked to take the same pay cut and will vote on the proposal.
If accepted throughout the legislature, the cut will save the province about $600,000, but it’s not enough to make a dent in the estimated $7B in lost revenue from lagging oil prices.
However, earlier in January, Prentice said that he was floating the idea of wage roll backs to government workers and the unions that represent those employees have been less than impressed with the idea.
Representatives from the Alberta Teacher’s Association, which has a contract up this year, say they’ve been faced with zero percent increases for the past several years. That’s caused salaries to drop below the provincial average.
“Turning directly to teachers or other public sector workers to consider taking more than their share is a difficult ask,” said Mark Ramsankar with the ATA.
Prentice’s proposal is reminiscent of rollbacks in the 1990s under then-Premier Ralph Klein.
That move sparked animosity between the government and its employees, so some are suggesting that Alberta could be in for some labour unrest over the next few years.
